By Olukayode Olumuyiwa.
Ecuadorian international defender Mario Pineida, a 33-year-old player for Barcelona Sporting Club, was shot and killed on Wednesday in a targeted attack in northern Guayaquil, authorities and his club confirmed. Another woman accompanying him—reportedly his partner—was also killed, while a third person, believed to be his mother, was wounded.
The incident occurred in the afternoon outside a butcher shop in the Samanes 4 neighborhood, a commercial area in the north of the city. According to police reports and local media, two assailants on a motorcycle opened fire on Pineida and the two women with him. Pineida died at the scene.
Barcelona Sporting Club, one of Ecuador’s most popular teams, issued a statement expressing profound sorrow: “Barcelona Sporting Club informs, with deep regret, that it has been officially notified of the death of our player Mario Pineida, a fact that occurred after an attack against him. This unfortunate news leaves us all deeply dismayed.”
Tributes poured in from across the football world. Former clubs Independiente del Valle and Brazil’s Fluminense expressed condolences on social media, as did the Ecuadorian Football Federation, which condemned the violence. Even international outlets noted messages from clubs like Real Madrid.
Pineida, born in Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, earned nine caps for Ecuador between 2015 and 2021, including appearances in World Cup qualifiers and the 2021 Copa América. He began his professional career at Independiente del Valle (2010–2015), before multiple stints with Barcelona SC, where he won league titles in 2016 and 2020. He had a brief spell at Fluminense in 2022 and played on loan at El Nacional in 2024.
The killing underscores the escalating violence in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city and a hub for gang-related crime tied to drug trafficking. The city recorded over 1,900 murders from January to September 2025, part of a national surge expected to exceed 9,000 homicides this year—the highest on record.
Ecuador’s Interior Ministry has deployed a special police unit to investigate, but no motive has been confirmed. President Daniel Noboa’s government has declared an “internal armed conflict” against criminal organizations, yet attacks on public figures, including several footballers this year, continue.
The Ecuadorian football community is in mourning, with Pineida’s death marking another tragic loss amid the country’s security crisis. Thoughts are with his family, friends, and teammates.
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